Golden Girl
by Star Fata
Summary: The Adventure of Parenthood- how Booster Gold becomes Daddy Mikey to one little girl from the thirty first century, Rani.
1. Responsibility

Booster Gold, the Corporate Crusader, former League member, former Superbuddy and now Time Master Trainee, had not had the best day of his life. Beginning badly, by accidentally going to the wrong date and witnessing the destruction of Daxam in the 31st century, accidentally leaving a group of non-Daxamites to their deaths at the hands of a green-themed maniac. By the time he got back, only two were alive. This number had rapidly halved when Jennaux Riel, a medical student from earth, had jumped to her death.

He'd taken Rani back to the twenty first century, her clothes soiled, and her cheeks stained with tears. Once he'd finished arguing with Rip over the other man's terrible handwriting, Rip had informed him that he was now, essentially a father.

It was worse than any joke he and Ted had ever dreamed up. He, Michael Jon Carter, dumb jock with a gambling problem, who couldn't even protect a puppy, was now responsible for a little girl who'd lost her mother, been given shitty foster parents who'd thrown a five year old girl out of their hotel room unsupervised in a strange city, and who'd then witnessed the murder- no, slaughter- of five people, only to have the only other survivor vanish.

Well. If she was his responsibility, he'd need advice. His sister was out- Michelle was barely twenty-two, and grieving her boyfriend. Rip? Also out, albeit for completely different reasons. Who else could he ask for help?

Batman. He could help get Rani in the system, possibly recommend what the hell he should do. Everyone knew Nightwing was practically a second father to Red Arrow's daughter.

Dr Light. They'd never been close, but the woman had raised two young children. Perhaps her maternal instincts would overpower her dislike of Booster Gold.

Jaime Reyes had a little sister; perhaps he should get Mrs Reyes' phone number.

He looked at the little girl again, and let out a tired sigh. First, he had to get her clean. Maybe she could use one of his t-shirts as a nightgown or something?


	2. Not Very Blue

After his return from the JLI headquarters, he'd been appropriately mortified that Rani had picked up his foul mouth. After a quick lecture, consisting entirely of 'those are bad words we're not supposed to use, so we'd better stop', he'd settled them down at the table with highlighters, marker pens and a few coloured inks. He made a mental note to get the kid some crayons. Rights after some clothes, some toys other than the toy robot from the 28th century hospital gift shop, and some decent furniture for her room.

"What're you drawing Mikey?" Rani asked, green eyes intently staring at his paper.

"Blue Beetle." He answered, with a smile. Actually, it was more like Anti-Beetle costume from their first week as Superbuddies, there was only one blue highlighter and a practically black blue biro.

Rani stared at his drawing critically. "It doesn't look like a Beetle. It's not very blue either..."

Booster started. "I guess you don't know about Beetle, huh?"

Rani puffed up indignantly. "I know lots about bugs!"

"Not the Beetle I meant." Booster interrupted. "Blue Beetle was a hero. His real name was Ted Kord."

"Was he a time-master?" Rani asked.

Booster opened his mouth to say no, but hesitated. Ted had restored the time line, after he had screwed it up trying to save his best bud. "Not really." He said, finally. "But he was a great hero, and my best friend."

Drawings forgotten, Rani listened raptly as he told story after story about Ted Kord. Some stories were about their attempts to get rich, edited for his young audience, others were about tales of heroism and derring-do against villains of varying competency and style, and some were of his fondest memories of Ted, playing jokes and tossing banter around like it was going out of style.

Rip found them, almost three hours after Booster had returned from the past, and paused in the doorway.

His father was animatedly explaining the time he'd fooled Ted into believing he'd married Gladys- all mentions of Wonder Woman costumes and toyboys carefully neglected- and his sister (Older sister? Baby sister?) was laughing delightedly as Booster adopted a high pitched voice. "I'm not pregnant!"

"Good to know." Rip interjected, unable to help a grin. "Lunchtime. Hope you like sandwiches."

"What're sandwiches?" Rani asked, curiously.

Father and son stared at her aghast.


	3. Meet My Girl

After returning from his second attempt to find proof that Maxwell Lord existed, Booster mused on the fact that Barda didn't completely hate him. In fact, at one point she had admired his spirit. There was no telling how his actions since then, such as shooting at Batman and essentially vanishing from the hero-stage, had eroded this admiration, but maybe he should give her a call.

After all, Rani would need strong female influences, and as much as he loved Michelle, he couldn't trust her with Rani. She'd run off into the Timestream for a vacation, letting him believe her dead, without a second thought.

He picked up the phone, and dialled a number he'd sworn never to use after Ted's death. "Hey Oracle. Booster Gold here. Barda around?"

Huh. The infamous Birds of Prey had been shut down. That was a shame, Ted had confided that he thought it the best place for the female heroes, where they didn't have to worry about The Big Boys Rules, and could focus on more important things, like getting the job done. Dinah had seemed a lot happier in Barbara's team than in the league, and Barbara had a clear-cut purpose, one not dependant on the Batclan.

"Mind telling me where I could find her?" Booster asked, eyes focused on the little girl eating fruit loops. Were those healthy? He really had to get to grips with this parenting thing.

"'Kay. Thanks."

Hanging up, he called the Free house. Scott Free, aka Mister Miracle, answered.

"Hey Scott. I was wallowing in nostalgia, figured I'd give a few old friends a call." Booster said, a grin audible in his voice.

"Oh?" Scott voiced, amused. "And what set off this bout of nostalgia?"

"I was thinking that I've got someone I want to show off." Booster hedged. "And I really want you to meet her."

His eyes slid over to Rani. They'd finally got around to buying some of the things she needed, such as clothes and toys, all chosen by Michelle. Thankfully, Michelle had chosen to take Rani with her when she went shopping, and most of the clothes were things Rani actually liked. At the moment, she was wearing her new favourite t-shirt, white with yellow stars shooting across her chest. He wondered if she'd always liked stars, or if his uniform had something to do with it.

"Hm. Not sure Barda would like to meet your latest squeeze Booster." Scott mused, disapprovingly. He'd never approved of Booster's womanizing ways.

Booster blinked, then laughed. This had bwahaha written all over it. "We'll be over at four, sound good to you?"

Scott spluttered out a yes, before Booster hung up. He smothered a cackle as he grinned at Rani. "Rani, how'd you like to meet some of my friends?"

As green eyes fixed on his face, his grin widened. The Free's wouldn't know what hit them.

"Bwa ha ha." He cackled, quietly.


	4. Meet My Girl cont

"I cannot believe you invited them to our home." Barda hissed at her husband, glancing out the window. "Do you remember the last time he came over?"

"Yes dear." Scott suppressed a grin. "The Planet Plougher incident, wasn't it?"

Barda shot a glare in his direction, well aware of his smile. "He and Beetle came over in full costume and parked the Bug in our driveway. Do you remember the neighbours? They couldn't believe it!"

"Booster doesn't have a bug Barda, so we don't have to worry about that." Scott soothed. "And we should be supportive of Booster. The fact he wants to introduce his new girlfriend to us, of all people, is a sign he's coming out of hiding."

Barda frowned as she attempted to re-arrange the flowers Scott had bought in order to apologise for Booster's impending invasion. After Blue Beetle had died, Booster had felt he had nothing to lose, and no one to tell him otherwise. After a few high-profile stunts, he'd practically vanished, with only the odd heroic appearance every now and then. She and Scott had kept an eye on their old teammate, trying to work out what his life was like now.

His latest appearance had been a showdown with Cyborg, when his take-down of Brigadoom hadn't been to the new League's liking. He'd damn near snapped, shouting and raving at the steel man before storming off.

Not that she blamed him, but her point held. Booster had not had the best heroic experience.

The doorbell rang, and Barda took a deep breath as Scott went to answer. There was a stunned silence on Scott's part, filled with Booster's cheerful rambling. Frowning, Barda went to see the what was so odd about the girl that Scott had forgotten his usually impeccable manners.

She recognized the look on Booster's face, from the many, many immature jokes he had shared with Ted Kord. Her eyes slid to the side, away from his wide grin, and froze. Clutching his denim-clad leg was a little girl, no older than Sin had been. His hand rested reassuringly on her head, and although he kept his eyes on their reactions, he kept glancing at her in his peripheral vision.

Despite this show of parental concern, one he himself seemed completely unaware of, he was barely restraining himself from bursting into maniacal laughter. Exasperation mixed with affection and relief as she welcomed Booster into her home, slapping Scott on the shoulder to break him out of his stupor.


	5. Playdate

Rani clutched Booster's hand as they entered the Reyes house. Most of her time in the 21st century had been spent in the Arizona lab, and she was nervous whenever she had to leave. Today, she was going to meet more of Mikey's friends. He said that Jaime was the new Blue Beetle, that his dad fixed cars, and his mom was a nurse. He had a sister her age, and she hoped that they'd be friends.

Mrs Reyes was a pretty lady, with dark hair and glasses and a nice smile. She and Mikey were talking about dinner, and Mikey was sort of flirting with her. He did that a lot; it was just his way of talking to women. At least, that was what Boppy said. He talked to Michelle differently because she was his sister, and he talked to men differently because men didn't like being flirted with by other men in this time.

Rani privately thought this time was really, really weird. Her father had been a very pretty lady, according to her mom. Mikey said that it wasn't completely possible for two boys or two girls to have a baby, and that there was only one boy in the world who had two biological dads. He also said it was still difficult when he'd been born, in the 25th century, so she shouldn't tell everyone that her father was a lady. They'd just say she was lying.

Oh, they were here. There was a girl, one who looked like Jaime and Mrs Reyes. Her hair was longer than Rani's, even longer than Michelle's! It was in pigtails. Self-consciously, Rani reached up to adjust her hairband.

"Hi. I'm Milagro." The other girl smiled. "What's your name?"

"Rani." She whispered, encouraged by Mikey squeezing her hand.

Milagro nodded decisively. "That's a nice name." She gestured to the floor. "Wanna play hero-dollies?"

"I don't know how to play." Rani replied, cautiously stepping away from Mikey.

"I'll teach you." Milagro stated confidently. "Don't worry, it's easy!"

She grabbed Rani's hand and pulled her towards the plastic dolls on the floor. Rani glanced over her shoulder, and Mikey smiled at her, nodding that she should play with Milagro. Squashing her nerves (Mikey wouldn't let anything happen to her if he could help it) she let go of his hand.

She turned her attention to the dolls, asking questions about any she didn't know. Milagro showed her one of Booster Gold. "His real suit's not that shiny." Rani confided. Then, remembering something Boppy had told her, grinning because they were playing a big joke on Mikey and he wouldn't have a clue, she quickly added to her new friend. "And his hair's thinning in the back."

Mrs Reyes let out a strange choking sound as Mikey let out a growling groan. He did that a lot when Rip, Skeets or Rani mentioned his hair.

Milagro looked up in surprise at the noise Mikey made, and although Rani knew what she would see, she looked up too. Then, brown eyes met green and both girls burst out laughing at the hero's expression.

It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.


	6. Miscommunications

_AN- I've been working on this on and off since before the reboot was announced. Heck, since before Rani disappeared from Booster's comics. And may I just say- that was irritating. The last mention of Rani could have become a really intriguing plot point- namely, her missing poster in the 31__st__ century. Also irritating- all the wiki's say she's a native Daxamite, when she isn't. Proof? She wasn't being mind-controlled in the genocide- and she doesn't have the powers._

* * *

Rani was cold, scared and bored. It'd been two days since the lab had blown apart, and Michelle and Rip were still lost in the timestream. With her two way translator blown to pieces, her grasp on English was too shaky for her to feel comfortable with any of her usual baby sitters, and as her being from the thirty first century was to remain a secret, she couldn't be left with any of the few heroes who did speak interlac, as all three still had periodic visits to the Legion of Superheroes.

The last thing anyone wanted was for Rani to be taken back to foster care.

Still, this meant Mikey had no choice but to take her with him when he spoke with the league. He was in the conference room, having left her at the door. Her Booster-Bear was clutched tight to her chest while she waited. She didn't _like_ this place. It was cold and too-clean, and it wasn't the lab.

She looked up at the sound of footsteps, and blinked. In front of her was a tall woman, taller than Michelle, with dark hair. Her clothes were strange, but apparently that was normal for superheroes.

She looked surprised to see Rani. It wasn't that much a shock, surely. Mikey said that Red Arrow's daughter had been to the Watchtower, so there was precedence for having a kid there.

Maybe it was her clothes, Rani hazarded a guess. They hadn't been able to salvage much from the lab, just what had been placed in special boxes. Their wardrobes had not been, although to her surprise many of the drawings she had done were. The ones on the refrigerator had been copies apparently.

She'd been wearing pyjamas when the lab was destroyed- what she was wearing now wear the least singled items of clothing they could find- one of Rip's t-shirts and a pair of his jeans that had been mostly salvagable- although one leg had burn damage, so they didn't feel bad about cutting it up to fit Rani. Booster was taking her shopping after the meeting, but that didn't make her look any less ridiculous now.

The woman smiled, leaning down so she was face to face with Rani. "Hey there. What's your name?"

The time traveller blinked at the taller woman, and tried to smile back. "Rani. Yours?" She wished her English was better, but she'd never really had reason to study the dead language.

Now? It was very much not dead.

"Call me Diana." The blue eyed woman said, frowning slightly. Rani guessed that she didn't need to introduce herself often. "Are you here alone?"

"No. Rani just…" Here, she struggled to remember the correct words. "Ate?"

"Eight?" Diana repeated.

Rani remembered the word with a rush of relief. "Wait." She corrected herself, smiling at the woman.

Diana didn't seem inclined to smile back. "What's your _full _name, Rani?"

How could a name be full? It was a word. Words couldn't be filled up. Except that she remembered Rip saying words could be full of meaning, once. Was that what Diana meant? It seemed a strange thing to ask, but the twenty-first century was a very strange place in general.

"Rani- Song, queen." She answered, remembering Mikey helping her look it up on the internet. He'd ruffled her hair and made a joke about her being the Queen of Songs- so it explained her singing voice. He'd looked pleased when she told him that her father had been a singer. She didn't know why.

"Rani Queen?" Another voice broke in. Diana looked shocked. The blonde woman behind her looked as if she was going to be ill. Rani wondered if she was cold, but the dark haired woman was okay, and she wasn't wearing nearly as much clothes.

"_Song_ queen." Rani corrected firmly. The queen part didn't matter so much, even if it was funny when Mikey bowed to her, calling her the little Queen of Songs.

"Dinah…" Diana said, her voice half scared, half warning.

'Dinah' snapped at Diana, too quickly for Rani to understand. She turned to Rani, her eyes…. She reminded Rani of far too many foster parents. The calculating distain, as if Rani was unpleasant to look at.

"How old are you?" Dinah asked, finally.

Rani opened her mouth to answer, but Diana beat her to it.

"She's eight." The black haired woman answered, almost apologetically.

Dinah closed her eyes, as if in pain; then stormed past the other two, into the conference room.

Rani clutched Booster-Bear tightly. Somehow, she'd messed up. Judging by the grimacing pity on Diana's face, she'd messed up very badly.

There was a lot of yelling in the meeting room. It was odd hearing someone who wasn't Michelle yelling. Rip and Mikey yelled sometimes, but they were a bit more careful about it. Whenever they saw her nearby, they'd get very politely angry at each other.

She supposed it was part of the good example they were trying to set. Michelle was more interested in making sure Mikey knew when he wasn't doing it right than setting a good one herself.

Maybe blond women in this century liked yelling? No, that couldn't be right. Michelle was from next century.

Diana cleared her throat. Rani looked up, questioningly.

"So, Rani." She smiled, a big fake one like some of the people on holovids, all shine and no warmth. "Why'd your daddy bring you here?"

Rani blinked. _Mikey as her daddy_? She'd never had one before. She didn't know how to deal with a daddy- and foster fathers didn't count. Not the ones she'd had over the years.

Wait… "How'd you know?" She asked suspiciously. "I didn't say who bringed me."

Diana's lips twitched, as if amused. The yelling got louder. "I know your daddy out of costume too." She confided.

….Mikey didn't like the League very much. He didn't have many people he liked anymore, but the League was most definitely not included.

Except for Batman, who'd promised to help. Either her English was **way** worse than she'd thought- or this wasn't Batman. And something was definitely up.

Test time. "You know Booster?" Rani asked, eyes narrowed. If this woman twitched wrong, she was going to scream. Mikey would save her.

The woman blinked. "Booster?" She echoed, hollowly.

Rani's arms tightened around her Booster-Bear, her uneasy feeling quadrupled. She screamed. "Booster!"

The man in question appeared at the door to the conference room in a second, his ring already glowing as he soared over to Rani. He looked around, nodding distractedly at Diana.

He relaxed slightly, and leaned down to pick up Rani. "You okay kiddo?" He murmured, one hand clenched in her shirt. His arms were trembling minutely, and his grip was tight enough to be uncomfortable- but Rani didn't care. He was here- and he could fix whatever she'd done.

Not trusting her English enough for this conversation, she just tucked her head into the crook of his neck.

"Booster? You're her father?" Diana said, her voice dark. Disapproving, almost.

Mikey shrugged slightly, but didn't answer her, one way or the other. "What's up?"

"I think I messy." Rani said quietly, her voice muffled by the Booster suit.

She could feel Mikey leaning his head back to try and get a better look at her.

"Word messy." She repeated, belatedly realizing how her words could be taken, especially with what had happened the day they'd met.

His head came forward again, to a more natural position. He adjusted his hold slightly, so Rani could hide more comfortably in the crook of his neck.

"So, I take it there's been some kind of misunderstanding?" He said, grinning at the very un-amused Amazon.

Diana's sigh of frustration was impressive. "_Booster_."


End file.
